The GDPA operates within the MOPH in Afghanistan and is the prime body for
managing pharmaceutical activities within the country in both the public and
private sectors.

For largely historical reasons of development in a post/on-going conflict
situation, GDPA has suffered from a high degree of fragmentation, as units and
departments have been added and revised in response to particular emergencies
and funding patterns at a given time. As a result, in addition to undertaking an
exceptionally wide range of functions, GDPA also often operates with multiple
players and independent functional streams undertaking the same task, but
without effective inter-communications and coordination.

MOPH recognizes the current difficulties on essential medicines and wishes to
see a harmonized and integrated approach with a nationally coordinated
methodology for ensuring effective management and control of pharmaceutical
substances and activities. To this end, GDPA wishes to undertake reform,
reorganization, and development of its functions to fulfill its overall mission,
but recognizes that it has limited resources with which to address such major
realignments and on-going needs.

A natural first step in determining the nature and extent of the development
and assistance required by GDPA is to map and identify those particular areas
and activities that may require support and assistance to achieve their goals.
To this end, the technique of functional analysis was chosen to provide the
necessary data and analysis.

The key objectives of functional analysis were to-

Work with GDPA and MOPH staff to document the functions and goals of
current systems, staffing, and resources and seek to address any immediate
operational issues that may arise

Clarify roles and responsibilities of existing GDPA departments and
units in relation to each other, MOPH, other Ministries, and the overall
health care environment

The USAID-supported Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems (SPS) project in
Afghanistan is providing technical assistance to GDPA to undertake the
functional analysis, analyze the results, and contribute toward the long-term
development of plans arising from the exercise.